Fionnáin reviewed A Ripple from the Storm by Doris Lessing
A turning point
4 stars
Each part of Doris Lessing's series focussing on the life of Martha Quest is itself a brilliant study of conflict, feminism and political idealism around the time of World War II. Based in a fictional British colony bordering South Africa and Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, the story's strengths are mostly in the brilliant, deep characters, and how their private motivations and public personas compete and complement one another.
This is the third in the series, and so is something of a crux in the story, a turning point for Martha Quest who is battling her past as a middle-class housewife-to-be and her perceived future in a communist utopia. The protagonist here struggles with how ideals clash with personal life, and with the hypocrisy of supposedly liberal politics that exclude women, "the natives" and other non-white working class people from a perceived idealistic future. Much of this book takes place at meetings and is …
Each part of Doris Lessing's series focussing on the life of Martha Quest is itself a brilliant study of conflict, feminism and political idealism around the time of World War II. Based in a fictional British colony bordering South Africa and Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, the story's strengths are mostly in the brilliant, deep characters, and how their private motivations and public personas compete and complement one another.
This is the third in the series, and so is something of a crux in the story, a turning point for Martha Quest who is battling her past as a middle-class housewife-to-be and her perceived future in a communist utopia. The protagonist here struggles with how ideals clash with personal life, and with the hypocrisy of supposedly liberal politics that exclude women, "the natives" and other non-white working class people from a perceived idealistic future. Much of this book takes place at meetings and is told through snapshots with an acute political understanding.
With Lessing's near-perfect prose and compelling storytelling, this is again a brilliant chapter in a wonderful series.